Impact Dance applied to the Enterprise Development Programme (EDP) to help them build their organisation into a sustainable business.
Social Impact
Impact Dance, founded in 1995, is a social change organisation for young people who are passionate about dance specialising in hip-hop, street dance and youth development. Since its conception Impact Dance has reached over 130,000 young people aged 11-19 from London and Wales. The current cohort of young people participating in Impact Dance programmes are mostly girls of African or Caribbean heritage and approximately 90% of them receive financial support to attend the classes.
The mission of the organisation is all about young people and supporting them as holistically as possible, from classes to career development opportunities, to providing personal hygiene products.
The organisation recently moved from Battersea Arts Centre to Bloomsbury Central Baptist Church, a Church of historic significance as the site Martin Luther King Jr delivered his first London sermon. The Church elected to have Impact Dance as a tenant because of its commitment to social impact and social justice. Architects worked with Impact Dance pro bono, delivering Corporate Social Responsibility hours to create a purpose-built youth centre within the Church premises.
“
The EDP aligns with "new age thinking" progressive thinking. if you are old school arts this will not match you. You have to think progressively to match the model”
Hakeem Onibudo
CEO of Impact Dance
How we helped
The CEO of Impact Dance, Hakeem Onibudo explained that the EDP helped at a crucial moment for the organisation. The programme provided them with funds to invest in the business without having hurdles that other grant providers presented for restricted funding.
For many years he thought of sacrificing this or that to stay providing for the youth programmes, which was going backwards. Hakeem identified that there is a funding trend in the arts to be reliant on grant funding which the pandemic demonstrated was not a sustainable model. Moreover, other grant-giving bodies had application processes such as writing detailed theories for change for often restrictive funding, which did not fit their intended goals. His priority was focusing on developing other revenue streams for Impact Dance that would increase resilience.
The EDP allowed Hakeem to think of how best to use the resources of the space to create revenue streams, securing contracts with companies such as Sadler Wells for rehearsal space and development (R and D) of projects.
This in turn has allowed Hakeem to expand the accessibility of the programmes he offers young people as well as the resources he supplies them with.
What was the outcome?
Hakeem hopes to expand the organisation further by hiring staff with expertise in brand and studio management as revenue from the enterprise of his organisation continues to grow. Within the EDP there was also an expression of interest to continue to interact with organisations within their field as well as organisations that participated in other cohorts of the programme to possibly collaborate in the future.
Impact Dance has future plans to develop more of Bloomsbury Baptist Church’s vacant space into a cultural hub which would include a cafe. This would grow their impact, outreach and revenue streams. Hakeem’s ultimate goal is for Impact Dance to be discussed in the same conversations as organisations such as Princes Trust where young people who are in need of support would be recommended to them as a community to turn to.
